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lion is better than a tyrannical king, and a tyrannical king
is better than perpetual revolutions.—A righteous king is
better than abundant rain.—He is the worst sovereign
whom good men dread and the wicked love.—Reli-
gion is strengthened by kings, and kings by religion.—
Rely not on this world, because everyone must leave it;
happiness, however, in the next world cannot be attained
except by making good use of our life in the present
one.'

Let it not remain concealed that Shall Ardeshir wan onu
of the Kings of .Persia, distinguished by his maxims, which
he left to posterity. One of his literary compositions bears
the title of Kdr-wrmak, and contains descriptions of his
victorious campaigns in the inhabited world. Another of
his books he wrote for the instruction of the people, and
surnamed it Adab-v.l-a'ixh, which contains practical rules
of life and dietctical maxims, it is related that police-
officers kept Ardeshir informed of every tiling going on in
his realm^ to such a degree that he was able to tell persons
whom he admitted »ko his audiences what they had U*t*n
saying or doing on the preceding day. He also maintained
spies at foreign courts, who reported to him everything lie
wished to know. It is also related that the subjects of no
monarch were so afraid of their ruler as the people of tho
dominions of Ardeshir dreaded him. It was his custom,
when appointing an envoy to a foreign court, to despatch
another after him, and to draw his conclusions after obtain-
ing the reports of both. He also was lit the habit of
saying that many armies arc destroyed, much property In
alienated, and many alliances i.iro broken, in eonsoquerwjts
of the mismanagement of ambassadors. Ho considered it
incumbent on a monarch, to possess the following qualities :
1, High aspirations, 2* Att'ability. & Half-restraint in
anger. 4. High regard for the lives and property of his
subjects. A king ought during tho time of his prosperity
to keep in mind tho state of those who arc m
When ho is joyful he ought to remember those who itro
plunged in sorrow, and in his strength ho ought to regard